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How Israel Was Founded: What Actually Happened Before, During & After 1948 War?

Author

Open University of the Left

Date Created

05 Nov 2002

Date Edited

05 Nov 2002 07:54:54 PM

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The 1948 Arab-Israeli War
How Israel Was Founded: What Actually Happened Before, During & After the 1948 War? Third Session in the series "Introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict"
November 6, Wednesday, 6:30 - 8:45 pm
Location: Lincoln Park Branch Library, 1150 W Fullerton Ave (at Racine)

How Israel Was Founded: What Actually Happened Before, During & After the 1948 War?

Third Session in the series "Introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict"

November 6, Wednesday, 6:30 - 8:45 pm

Location: Lincoln Park Branch Library, 1150 W Fullerton Ave

Free event (donation appreciated). There is some free public parking

The circumstances surrounding the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948 have long been cloaked in mythology and obfuscation, especially in the United States where the power and influence of the pro-Israel lobby is so overwhelming. The image of an Israeli-Jewish "David" confronted by an Arab "Goliath" was nurtured from the very beginning -- exemplified in such productions as Leon Uris's novel and movie "Exodus" -- and enormously bolstered during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. This mythology persists up the very present, even as the Middle East's regional superpower (the fourth or fifth strongest military power in the world, nuclear-armed) continues to pulverize the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who cling tenaciously to the remnants of their land.

This class will examine such questions as:
~~ What about the Nazi Holocaust and the plight of the Jewish death camp survivors?
~~ What role did Zionist terrorism play in the period before the 1947 Partition Plan was adopted?
~~ Was the U.N. Partition Plan a fair settlement of the disputed claims?
~~ Who attacked first and undertook the major offensives?
~~ Why did the Palestinians flee and can this now be characterized as "ethnic cleansing"?
~~ What was the role of the Great Powers (the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union) in these events?

For anyone who has not attended the previous sessions this is a worthwhile educational event dealing with a pivotal moment in the entire Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Optional readings are available but not required.

Originated and sponsored by Open University of the Left.
Co-sponsored by Not In My Name, Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism, Chicago Greens, Democratic Socialists of America Chicago Chapter, and DePaul Students for Justice in Palestine.